My boss from the States needed a place to stay and I suggested the NEXT Hotel based on it being new and having fancy-sounding tech features plus they were offering excellent prices. He chose to get breakfast included so I took the opportunity to check out the breakfast options at Lennons (attached to NEXT).
It's a typical breakfast buffet deal with standard hot and continental options spread over several stations. For those with a sweet tooth, fill up on fruit salad, Bircher muesli, yoghurt (including dairy-free coconut yoghurt), pannacotta, pastries, muffins, cake or there is a large range of cereals available. If savoury is more your caper then you have basic options of eggs, bacon, sausages, grilled tomato and mini potato roesti. There are also some savoury pastry items - I saw savoury scones and a vegetable tart when I was there. Poached eggs are cooked and kept in one of the heated bowls (like the rest of the hot food) but you can order scrambled and fried eggs to order which are served fresh on toasted buttered dark bread. The bread selection is actually what stood out for me here - they have several types of sliced quality fresh bread available which you can toast yourself including bagels, sourdough, the dark (rye?) seeded bread,a delicious looking fruit bread and gluten-free bread, which I'm pretty sure was either Sol Breads or Zehender. There is also a range of condiments to spread on your toast if you'd like.
Drinks are covered with self-serve filter coffee, tea (bags and hot water provided), juice, milk (full cream, skim, soy) and water. Note that if you order an espresso coffee, you will be charged extra, which I wasn't warned about. Service was accommodating but you need to approach them to get anything. I found that it took a long time for my table to be cleared (despite having eggs delivered) and there were plenty of tables waiting to be cleared when I arrived, to the point that despite there being a large number of seating, only a few were cleaned and able to be sat at. This wasn't due to a lack of staff however. Due to it recently being refurbished, it is a nice setting with comfortable seating and a decent view out to the Queen St Mall.
Overall, I'm not sure how much the full buffet costs so I can't comment on value for money but it was a nice buffet. Apart from service, there wasn't much to fault. I would have liked to see more fresh fruit available and maybe poached eggs made to order but really there are plenty of options for everyone there. Some more signage would be helpful too, especially for people with food intolerances. The coconut yoghurt is a great inclusion but it wasn't signed and I only knew when I asked what it was. Personally I wouldn't choose to return for it with all of the other great breakfast options around the place (plus I have a terrible tendency to seriously overeat when faced with a buffet) but if you're staying there already, it's probably worth going for it! read more